Friday, 27 January 2012

Another reply from Mark!

(I'm guessing he's more of a Celebrity Big Brother than Panorama kinda guy.)

Dear DomThank you for your email. I am so sorry that our 18:51 was delayed last Fridaywhen our 18:45 to Swansea failed just outside of Paddington and blocked theline.Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the Panorama program in the end.I hope you have had an enjoyable week off.Mark

You might have thought that the MD of a transporter operator that's criticised on a prime time national TV programme might have taken the time out to watch said programme. So he didn't catch it - hasn't he heard of iPlayer?!

Martin Harbottle's Appreciation of Time

"War and Peace on the Oxford to London line"

Dramatis personae

Mark Hopwood - Managing Director of First Great Western trains

Sue Evans - Director of Communications for First Great Western trains

Dominic - that's me. I'm unhappy with Mark and Sue.

About me

My name is Dominic. For two years I commuted between Oxford and London on First Great Western trains. In late June 2011, after 14 months of paying around £450 a month for utterly appalling service, I decided to speak up.

Every time my train was delayed, I wrote to the Managing Director and Director of Communications for FGW trains - and the length of my email reflected the length of that day's delay... the idea being that I would waste the same amount of their time as they had wasted mine.

I kept it up for nine months - during which time I wrote around 100,000 words in 97 letters, reflecting over 24 hours of delays to my commute.

What follows are those letters - and their replies. Nothing is edited.

(Also: thanks to all who have contacted me to say how much they've sympathised, empathised or enjoyed these letters. It means a lot, honestly.)